Delhi to San Francisco flight diverted to the faraway Russian city of Magadan

Magadan, Jun 07: A replacement aircraft bound for Russia's Magadan on Wednesday to fly out stranded passengers has been delayed as Air India officials are working through regulatory issues in order to operate the flight. An Air India flight which was headed to San Francisco from New Delhi was diverted to Magadan on Tuesday after it developed an engine issue.

 

 

 

Several stranded Air India passengers in remote Magadan, which is over 10,000 km from Russia's capital Moscow, are being housed in dormitories because hotels in the area are unable to accommodate everyone on the flight. The Civil Aviation Ministry said today that it is closely watching the developments in Magadan and that a relief aircraft will depart from Mumbai today at 1 pm to take the stranded passengers from Magadan to San Francisco.

 

 

 

"Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia is closely monitoring the situation. We are in touch with the airline," a statement from the ministry said. "Air India is sending a relief aircraft B777-200LR VT-ALF as a ferry with men and material on board for recovery of VT-ALH. The aircraft VT-ALF will take passengers from Magadan to San Francisco International Airport. The tentative departure of VT-ALF from Mumbai is today at 1 pm IST. "Air India has informed us that they're taking care of passengers - local government is helping with accommodation. Passengers have been moved to a school close to the airport. The Indian embassy has also been contacted to provide food & essentials." The United States said on Tuesday that it is "closely monitoring" the situation. "We are aware of a US-bound flight that had to make an emergency landing in Russia and are continuing to monitor that situation closely. I'm not able to confirm how many US citizens were aboard the flight at this time," US State Department Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel said.

 

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"It was a flight that was bound for the United States. So, it is, of course, likely that there are American citizens on board. There's public reporting from Air India that they are sending - what my understanding is - a replacement aircraft to the destination to have the passengers carry on for their route, but I would defer to the air carrier to speak to anything further on this," Patel added. The Air India plane was carrying 216 passengers and 16 crew members.